A Better World
by chronicxxinsanity
Summary: Abigail Reynolds was put into cryosleep long before scientists began to create the Covenant, with the intention of sending her into a better world. She finds herself waking up long after she should have died, hurtling through space to a new planet. The questions are never-ending. Why did someone send her here? And why is she just now waking up?
1. Chapter 1

Abi was aware of her breathing first. In and out. In and out. A steady slow rhythm.

The air was growing colder with each breath, spreading an icy chill through her chest. It reached down to her stomach and up to her throat, bringing a shock of awareness with it as she woke up. Her body felt heavy and weighted but slowly she was able to wiggle her fingers, shift her feet, and finally open her eyes.

They burned when Abi first opened them and she blinked until the blurriness went away and they adjusted to the dim light around her. After taking several deep breaths she was able to turn her head to look around her but she froze when a sharp pain shot through her neck. She moved slower this time, trying to take in her surroundings.

 _Am I in a hospital?_

The bed she was laying in was small and a tall wall lined the sides. Above her head a dull blue light blinked every few seconds and Abi watched it for a few moments, shifting her body slowly to carefully roll onto her side. Her body felt stiff and her movements were agonizingly slow, but she managed to propped herself up on her elbow to peer over the wall. The bed she was in wasn't that far off the ground but the thought of crawling over it sounded exhausting.

Abi relaxed back into the bed and took a moment to look herself over. She was wearing white clothes that felt like spandex when she brushed her fingers over her legs. They fit tight and didn't offer much warmth, and were a far cry from anything in her own closet.

Abi continued to check her body over slowly, moving her cold fingers over her stomach, then her arms, and finally her head covered in the same fabric. Everything felt sluggish and slow but aside from her sore neck and heavy limbs, nothing seemed to be wrong or broken. Abi waved her fingers in front of her face, all ten perfectly accounted for and as she remembered them. Even the thick pink scar tissue that ran across the back of her left hand was still there. Abi lifted her head to count her toes. As cold as they were all ten were there, freckly as they had always been.

Taking a slow deep breath, Abi moved carefully back onto her side and peered over the wall again. There was a strange box next to her with the same blue light blinking at the top, but in the dim light she couldn't make out much of what was around her. She wiggled around until she was kneeling in the bed and managed to step over the wall.

The cold floor felt like ice to her foot and Abi sucked in a quick breath. Her chest ached at the sudden movement but she kept going and climbed completely out of the bed. The ache in her chest worsened and her hands trembled as she forced herself to stand up straight. A wave of nausea turned her stomach and Abi doubled over, spitting up an acidic bile that made her nose and throat burn. She spit as much of it out as she could, recoiling at the horrible taste and wiping her mouth on the slippery fabric over her arm.

She held onto the wall of the bed to support her weight until she was sure her knees wouldn't buckle as her body continued to tremble. The pounding of her heart in her chest finally slowed as Abi took deep calming breaths, stepping over the pile of vomit on the floor to the box beside her bed.

The same blue light blinking steadily at the head of what was another bed like hers. Unlike hers though, she noticed a pane of glass covered the top as she stepped closer. A man was in the bed, his skin impossibly pale and his eyes closed. Abi reached out a shaky hand and tapped her fingers on the cold glass.

"Multiple system failures in need of attention." Abi snatched her hand back as a loud voice spoke and she scrambled back to crouch low beside her bed. She frantically looked around for the person until the voice sounded again, coming from speakers somewhere above her. "Overall structural integrity was maintained during the incident. Two sections of sleeping pods require attention. Available non-essential personnel, please report to Nursery to assess damages to colonists."

The booming voice echoed through the room and Abi stayed where she was, listening hard for any other voices. Her shaking hands clung to the wall around her bed as she peered around the room.

It didn't look anything like a nursery. For as far as she could see in the dim light, there were two rows of beds covered in glass. Somewhere farther away Abi could make out red blinking lights, but none of them made any sense to her.

 _None of this makes sense._

Abi turned to sit on the floor and leaned against her metal box of a bed. She scooted up towards the head when she realized she was almost sitting in the pile of vomit, the bile still burned the back of her throat and she suppressed the urge to gag again. She took a deep breath to settle her stomach and climbed back to her feet.

Wherever she had woken up, there had to be a way out.

Abi stepped over the vomit and glanced around the two rows of beds again, a new determination to escape surging through her. She was drawn to the red blinking lights that flashed across the room and she stepped down the walkway between the rows. All the beds were exactly alike, all filled with people that seemed to be in a deep sleep. Or dead. They all were so lifeless it was hard to tell the difference.

 _Why aren't they waking up? Are these people trapped here too?_

Her heart felt like it jumped into her throat when she heard footsteps. A silhouette passed in front of the red lights, briefly casting the room into even more shadows

Abi scrambled to hide between two of the beds, scooting as far away from the walkway as possible and squeezing herself into the dark corner. Her heart raced as the footsteps came closer and closer, then stopped. Abi pressed her hands against her mouth. Whoever it was, if they listened carefully they might be able to hear her heart pounding in her chest or her shaky breaths as she struggled to calm herself down.

"How many colonists have we lost?" a man asked, his voice far closer than Abi had anticipated. She pressed her hands harder against her mouth and tried to control her breathing through her nose.

The woman responded again, her robotic voice echoing through the room from above. "Forty-seven colonists have expired due to the malfunctioning of their pods. Forty-eight pods have experienced malfunction."

"Has the forty-eighth colonist been awakened?" the man asked, his footsteps slow as he started to walk away.

There was a long pause, then, "Yes."

"Location of the forty-eighth pod, Mother?"

"F-415."

Abi held her breath as the man walked towards her hiding spot and she tucked herself as tightly into the corner as she could, pressing her face into her knees. The footsteps passed by and Abi let out a slow shaky breath.

She crawled on her hands and knees towards the walkway, hoping the dim light was enough to hide her as she peered around the corner of the bed - or _pod_. A tall man was standing maybe forty feet away at the end of the bed she had woken up in, stooping low to look at the vomit she had left on the floor.

"Mother? How long ago did they wake up?"

"Eleven and a half minutes ago."

The man walked to the head of her bed, taking a long step over the mess on the floor and Abi shifted, crouching low and steadying herself against the bed as she watched the back of his head. Her bare feet made hardly any noise as she slowly crept along the edge of the walkway towards the blinking lights and back where the man had come from. There had to be a door or a window that way.

"What information do we have on this colonist?" the man asked, his voice quieter as he kneeled down to inspect her pod closer.

"Abigail Grace Reynolds. Born February 20, 1998 in Washington D.C. Asleep since 2016." Abi froze when she heard her own name echo around the room and for a moment she thought she would vomit again. There was that familiar flip in her stomach and she continued as quietly as she could towards the lights. "Her place on the Covenant was secured in place of Dr. Marcus Leonard Reynolds." Abi pressed her hand against her mouth to stifle her rapid breathing, her footsteps faster as she made it to the end of the walkway.

The red lights were flashing from above an open doorway and Abi let out a sigh of relief at the sight, moving faster towards the door.

 _I can get out of here. There has to be a door out here._ Abi felt tears start to build up and her breathing became louder. _Don't panic. Don't panic. Keep calm. You can get out of here._

"Hey! Wait!" the man yelled and Abi fought the urge to turn and look back.

She started to run for the door - to hell with being noisy now - her footsteps still quiet in comparison to the stomping she could hear behind her. Fear pushed her faster and faster until she flew through the door and found herself in a large hallway, the lights dim but enough to see by as Abi ran as fast as her tired legs could take her.

"A door, a door," Abi muttered to herself, looking at the metal walls on either side of her as she went. She slid to a stop, her feet skidding painfully on the cold floor as she finally found an open door. It only lead to another hallway but it was something, so Abi took off through the doorway as a voice echoed behind her.

"Miss Reynolds, wait! Mother! Lock doors R45 and R46!"

Abi's lungs burned as she ran and came to a stop at another door. Before she could pass over the threshold the door slid shut inches away from Abi's face and she jumped back. Footsteps pounded on the ground towards her and she raced down the hallway faster, looking for other doors frantically.

"Lock R47, R49 and S12!"

Abi slid to a stop just as another door shut in front of her.

She was getting closer to the end of this hallway and her options looked like they were getting worse, so when she saw a small door on the other side of the hall she ran as fast as she could through it. There air here was warmer and the lights were brighter. She blinked through the panicked tears and gasped for breath. There was a single open door at the end of this hallway.

 _Just how big is this place?_

Abi felt her heart sink when the door down the hallway slid shut. She frantically looked around for any kind of door or window or handle, her shaking hands feeling the wall for anything that would give way. She pounded the metal with her fists when nothing moved.

"Miss Reynolds, please don't run. There is a lot that needs to be explained."

Abi let out a sharp breath - maybe if she was calmer she would have shot back something sarcastic - and continued to search the walls. She was growing more and more frenzied as his footsteps came closer.

"Miss Reynolds, please stop. I assure you that you are in no danger here," he said calmly, coming to a stop. His voice was composed and he wasn't even out of breath; in contrast Abi was aware that her cheeks were wet with tears and that her breaths were coming out in sobs. She still searched for anything in the hallway, any sign of a doorway or anything she could pick up and use to protect herself. "I need to take you to see a medic, your pod malfunctioned and we need to see if you're okay. I assure you our doctor is very qualified."

Abi would feel better about turning and facing him if she had a weapon of some kind, but she had found nothing. There wasn't even a broom or a single heavy object she could throw, so she wrapped her arms tightly around her stomach and sucked in deep breaths.

Abi finally turned to look at him. He was farther down the hall than she had thought and he held his hands opened out to her.

"I'm not armed," he said when Abi looked him up and down, searching for any signs of a knife or a gun. He was wearing clothes about as tight as the ones Abi woke up in and there was no sign of a weapon strapped to him. "I can assure you, Miss Reynolds. You are safe here."

He stepped closer and Abi backed up, only stopping when her back hit the wall. The hallway was narrow, but maybe if she rushed him she could slip by and try a different-

"If you're thinking about running again, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why?" Abi asked when she finally found her voice. Her throat burned and her voice didn't quite sound like her own.

"These doors won't open for you. The only path right now is back to the pods and there are no other exits through that room." He waited until Abi's ragged breathing started to calm down and her eyes finally stopped seeking out weapons or exits around them. Instead, she stared warily at him like she was waiting for an attack. "I need to take you to see our doctor. She needs to see if your health was effected by the pods malfunctioning."

"That voice earlier. It knew my name, it knew about me and it knew my father's name too." The man nodded but didn't seem to infer her question. "How do you know all of that?"

"There is no easy answer to the-"

"I don't care if it's easy," Abi said sharply, wiping her wet cheeks on the back of her hand and taking slow deep breaths. Her heart was still beating rapidly in her chest. "How do you know my name?"

"When you were brought here you were already in an archaic version of cryosleep, but your information was with you and uploaded to Mother as well as your pod."

There were so many questions Abi didn't know where to start. _Cryosleep? Mother? What kind of metal maze did they put her in?_

"Please," the man said, holding up his hands again to prove he was not armed. "I need to take you to our doctor."

"And if I don't want to go with you?" Abi asked, wishing she sounded more bold and daring instead of terrified.

"I can physically take you there myself so our doctor can determine whether you need medical treatment," he said. "But I don't want to force you to go unwillingly."

Abi gave him a final look over. He was at least several inches taller than her and much more muscular, she didn't doubt that he could drag her there kicking and screaming if he wanted to.

"I'll follow you there," Abi said finally.

He nodded and stood a little taller, lowering his hands to his sides and motioning down the hallway. "That would be the easiest for both of us. This way, please."


	2. Chapter 2

Abi kept her distance from the man leading her down the hall, matching his strides to make sure she didn't get too close. She may have chosen to follow him but she didn't trust a single hair on his head and she watched him warily as he stepped back into the darker hallway. They were headed back towards the room with the pods.

"Mother, please ask Karine to meet us in the medbay. And open these doors," he added, turning to stand in front of one of the doorways that had slammed shut earlier. He turned to look at Abi and gave her a smile that was almost apologetic. "It won't be a long walk from here. If you feel like you are going to be sick again before we get there, please let me know."

He was waiting for a response so Abi nodded, following behind him when the door slid open. The doors down the hall slid open as well and Abi paused for a moment, her head spinning with thoughts about finding a way out.

"Karine will meet you in the medbay," the robotic voice sounded from above again and Abi flinched, turning to see that the man was down the hall and had paused to wait for her. Giving the doors a final look, Abi stepped over the threshold and followed the man through a maze of hallways. Some were larger, some were narrow, but all were completely empty and metal from floor to ceiling. There was something cold and sterile about them that kept Abi on edge.

The air started to get warmer as they went. Abi had barely noticed how numb her feet and hands had become in her haste to escape and they tingled, almost painfully, as they slowly started to warm up again.

"Here is our medbay," the man said, having come to a stop at another doorway and motioned with a hand for Abi to go first.

"Hi Walter, did you find her?" He turned to look at the doctor before turning back to Abi, motioning again for her to go in first. This time he stepped away from the door, giving her a bit of space as Abi slowly came closer. "Come on in!"

Karine's voice was cheerful and inviting as Abi stepped into the room.

It was remarkably like the hallways they had walked through; plain metal floor and walls and not much in the way of windows or decorations. Several black screens sat above a counter and a woman sat in a chair in front of them.

Abi took a moment to look her over; she wore the same clothes as Walter but was quite a bit smaller, with darker skin, eyes, and hair. She had a warmer smile and Abi thought if she hadn't just woken up in a metal maze of a nightmare she may have found comfort in it.

Karine grinned and reached out a hand but Abi was looking around the room and hugged her arms across her chest when she felt both sets of eyes watching her. For a medical room, it was noticeably empty of all of the medical supplies she was used to seeing during her visits with her own doctor. No blood pressure cuffs on the wall, no exam table, no jars of cotton swabs or those wooden sticks that always made her gag.

"How are you feeling right now?" Abi turned to look at Karine when she spoke but paused to think about it.

"Kinda nauseous," Abi admitted, shifting her weight between her cold feet nervously. Her voice still sounded slow and hoarse, her throat burned with the effort.

"That'll be from the hypersleep," the doctor said knowingly, turning her chair to face the screens. Abi watched, fascinated, as she waved a hand over the counter and blue lights started to glow against the metal, taking the shape of a large keyboard with far more buttons than Abi remembered seeing on her own laptop. The doctor's thin fingers ran over the keys quickly and one of the black screens lit up, words running across the screen in time with the typing. "It tends to make people nauseated but it should go away on its own within another ten minutes or so. How long have you been awake?"

The tapping against the counter stopped and the doctor turned her head to look at Abi over her shoulder.

"Sixteen minutes," Walter answered, his hands behind his back and looking very much like a guard on duty.

The tapping on the counter continued for a moment before Karine stood up and moved down the counter, waving her hand again. A drawer opened at her command and Abi watched with wide eyes as the drawer shut, disappearing entirely back into the plain wall.

Karine turned to Abi, a handful of tools in her hands and a comforting smile on her pretty face.

"Here, let me get the table out." Karine handed the tools off to Walter and walked to a plain wall, her hands commanding a table to slide out from the wall just like the drawer.

 _So the rooms and halls aren't bare. They just hide everything._ Abi briefly wondered if she could make drawers and tables appear too but the thought was cut off when Karine patted the table.

"Hop on. I just want to check your vitals." Abi moved slowly, feeling sluggish and taken aback by how different this office was, but she pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the table. The metal under her was cold to the touch and Abi clasped her icy fingers together in her lap, trying to stifle the shiver that ran up her spine as Karine took the tools back from Walter and placed them in a line on the table beside her.

Karine grabbed an instrument and moved to stand in front of Abi. There was a click and a light appeared, and suddenly the blinding white light flashed up to Abi's face and she flinched back, raising her hands to block it as a shock of pain erupted behind her eyes.

"Sorry," Karine apologized, moving the light away and waiting until Abi blinked the pain away and lowered her hands back to her lap.

"I should have warned you, I need to check your eyes." The doctor lifted up the light again. Abi bit down on her lip as the light flicked across her face, pausing painfully long in front of each eye before the light clicked off and was placed back on the table.

"Maybe a minor form of a concussion," Karine said, more to herself than to Abi, and looked over at Walter who had retreated to the doorway again. "Can you put that into her file?"

Walter nodded and sat in her chair, his fingers moving across the counter rapidly. When he was done he turned the chair to face them again, waiting and watching patiently, almost curiously.

"Does your head hurt?" Karine asked, her hands coming up to probe the sides of Abi's neck through the spandex fabric. Her fingers were warm and while Abi wanted to move away from being touched by these strange people, the warmth felt nice. "Does you head hurt?" Karine asked again.

"It did with the light," Abi said and Karine probed along her base of her neck and along her collarbones before removing her warm hands. She felt goosebumps on her arms as a shiver ran through her again when the lack of warmth made her feel colder than before. "Not so bad now."

"Add light sensitivity, pupils reacted appropriately," Karine said to Walter and he turned the chair to tap away on the counter. "You can take off the cap now, I need to check your ears."

Abi felt at the fabric around her head and found a seam along her neck. She tugged the tight fabric off of her head and felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up as the chilly air met her skin. Her hair fell around her neck and shoulders but offered her about as much warmth as the cap had, which was not as much as she would have liked. Karine's warm hand reached up and pressed against Abi's jaw, silently moving her head to the side and pushing her hair behind her ear.

Abi let the doctor check out her ears, press something against her chest and back and stomach to listen, and opened her mouth wide so she could shine a light into her throat. She laid back on the table when Karine asked her to and allowed the doctor to press her fingers against her stomach, expertly feeling her abdomen and nodding when she was finished.

"Everything else looks fine," Karine said, setting down her final instrument and gathering them all up to go back to the hidden drawer. Walter typed away on the glowing blue keyboard and Abi slowly sat up, letting her legs dangle over the side of the table again. "You'll need some proteins and carbs, so drink one of these." Karine moved closer to the door to a plain spot on the wall, and this time Abi wasn't as surprised when part of the wall moved to reveal several bottles. "Strawberry or chocolate?"

"Strawberry," Abi said when she realized the question was for her and took the opened bottled that the doctor offered to her, watching as the door slid shut and the bottles disappeared from view.

"Do you have any questions for me?" Karine asked, leaning against the wall beside the screens and crossing her arms while Abi took an experimental sip. The drink reminded her of strawberry milk and as weird as the thick liquid was, it was better than the metallic bile that she had been tasting since she had vomited.

Abi tried to say something but had to clear her throat to try again.

"Where am I?"

Karine smiled warmly at the simple question.

"You're on the Covenant. We're on our way to Origae-6. Our scientists have been studying the planet for years and it seems to be the best option for sustaining human life." Abi felt her mouth go dry, struggling to process the words and names that were so foreign. "You weren't supposed to wake up yet. None of us were, actually. There were some issues with the ship and some of the colonist pods were damaged, yours too. You're pretty lucky if you only have a concussion from that." Karine paused again like she was giving Abi a chance to say something. "We're still a good seven years or so from Origae-6 but we'll figure out what's going on and get everyone back into hypersleep soon."

Abi's head felt like it was heavy and she closed her eyes as tightly as she could.

 _Damage to a ship. Origae-6. Seven years._

Maybe Abi really did have a concussion, maybe that's why none of this was making sense. Abi tried to remember anything that would explain this; there was something seriously missing if she had ditched her dreams of art school, of becoming an art teacher in New York, to go sleep in a pod for years. That something would have to be massive to explain the gaps in her memory.

Abi lifted a hand to her head, the room feeling like it was buzzing around her. Her hands felt like they were tingling again and white spots started to appear at the edge of her vision when she blinked.

The last thing she remembered was hearing something loud crash and Karine and Walter jumping towards her before everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3

This time when Abi woke up it was not pleasant or gradual.

She was dragged from the dark depths of sleep by a throbbing in her head that erupted behind her eyes. Black and white spots danced behind her eyelids and left her more disoriented than aware when she was finally able to open them.

"There you are," a kind voice said, followed by a woman's giggle. "Welcome back to the land of the conscious, Abi."

A hand was on her shoulder and helped to guide her up until she was sitting on the exam table. The pressure disappeared from her when she could hold herself up and she raised a hand to rubbed her eyes, feeling like she had been sleeping for entirely too long but hardly felt rested.

"What happened?" Abi asked, the throbbing in her head slowly subsiding but not leaving completely. It pulsed with every heartbeat.

"You passed out. It's okay, it happens to the best of us. I want to check your eyes again." Karine reappeared beside her with that damned flashlight, clicking it on. She moved the light around Abi's face again and smiled when she was done, turning off the light and returning it to the hidden drawer across from the room.

 _That's right. The doctor's office._ Abi wasn't sure if it was comforting or alarming that she remembered what had happened before she fainted. On one hand, maybe she wasn't as messed up in the head as she had to assume but on the other...

 _Origae-6. Seven years away._ The fact that she didn't wake up in her own bed in her own home made her chest tighten. _So it wasn't a weirdly vivid dream._

"You've been in hypersleep for a lot longer than most of us," Karine said, sitting at the counter to type away on the blue keyboard. "It'll take some rest and fluids to get you back to 100%."

"More rest," Abi said, wanting to laugh at the thought but she didn't feel particularly humorous.

"I know," Karine said, turning to give Abi an insistant look. "A little counter-intuitive but trust me, it works wonders. That and a hot shower. We can show you to that later, though, first you should talk to the captain."

The doctor continued to tap her fingers rapidly against the counter, eyes glued to the screen on the wall, and it wasn't until Walter stepped forward that Abi remembered he was there. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back and a blank, although not unpleasant, expression.

"I can show you to the viewing deck," Walter said and Abi carefully slipped off of the exam table, holding the edge until she was sure her legs wouldn't wobble under her.

"Please put the exam table away before you leave," Karine said idly, her eyes never leaving the screen. Walter nodded and passed by Abi - giving her more space than necessary, she noticed - and stowed the table back into the wall. The room was exactly as it was when they got there, empty and cold and a far cry from the familiar doctor's offices that Abi remembered.

"This way," Walter said, motioning with a hand for Abi to follow him out the door.

"Thank you," Abi said quickly and turned back to the doctor, almost forgetting her manners. She glanced back into the room and saw Karine smile to the screens before she left the office and followed Walter down the hallway.

He led her through four different doors, down several hallways, and up a set of stairs before they finally reached what Walter called the viewing deck. Unlike the other places Abi had seen so far, there wasn't a door into this room. The end of the hallway opened up to a plain white and metal room with a large table in the middle and several chairs along a counter at the wall.

She wanted to make a comment about the view being underwhelming but decided against it.

"Captain Oram will be here in a minute. He is tending to an event with some of the crew members but I believe he should be finished by now." Walter stood off to the side of the room while Abi walked around and took in the lack of views. The table was quite large with several chairs surrounding it, but the walls were completely bare. If they were going to call it a viewing room one might expect there to be something to view.

"Thank you."

Walter nodded and moved to the other side of the table, kneeling down and Abi could only imagine he was rummaging through another hidden drawer or box until he stood back up with a bottle in his hand.

"Your drink fell when you lost consciousness," he said simply, opening the drink and handing it to Abi. "You should drink this if you can. It has proteins, sugars, carbs...things you'll need to recover from the shock of waking up from hypersleep."

Abi nodded and thanked him again, taking a sip of the bizarrely thick liquid and decided the lack of flavor was better than the almost-strawberry-milk drink that Karine had given her. She sipped the drink and looked around the room, trying to see if there were any outlines along the wall of more hidden drawers or tables. She was aware that Walter was still standing off to the side of the room like he had been during the brief exam with Karine and the feeling of eyes on her back set her on edge. But Abi stifled the uneasy feeling, deciding that his silent company was probably better than if he left her alone.

"I'm not keeping you from anything, am I?" Abi asked suddenly, realizing he may be waiting for something.

"No, you're not," Walter said and gave her a smile, though it wasn't as warm or friendly as the doctor's had been.

Abi nodded and continued to look around the room. If there were any other hidden drawers or doors or tables, they were hidden extremely well, but she passed the minutes drinking and inspecting the room curiously anyway.

She heard footsteps and turned to see the shadow of someone coming down the hall. The man smiled kindly to Abi, giving her a quick wave before turning to Walter.

"Please get any belongings that were secured in her pod and bring them here." Abi watched as Walter nodded and left wordlessly before her attention was drawn back to the captain that was now walking towards her. He was taller than her - though he was wearing boots and she was still barefoot - and looked like he was maybe a year or two younger than her own dad.

"My name's Oram, I'm the new captain of the Covenant for the remainder of this mission," he said, reaching out and Abi shifted the bottle into her other hand to shake his. "Are you cold?"

He pulled his hand away and Abi shrugged. Maybe her body had gotten used to being cold, or maybe she was still in shock. "I'm okay."

He nodded and walked passed her to stand by the counters, pulling a chair out and motioning for Abi to take the one next to him.

"I was thinking about where to debrief the colonists when we arrive at Origae-6," he said thoughtfully, rubbing his fingers along the stubble on his chin. "I think this would be the best place if we do it in small groups. A nice introduction to the Covenant, since most of them didn't get to see it in person before going to sleep."

Abi decided she liked that phrasing better. _Going to sleep,_ versus hypersleep. It sounded more familiar and gentle.

"You're the first of the colonists to wake up. And survive, anyway," he said and immediately cringed at his own words, running a hand through his hair. Abi wasn't sure how to respond to that so she didn't. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Abi said, but when Oram gave her a knowing look she took a sip from her drink. "It's just weird."

"I imagine it is," he said with a nod. "Open the blinds, please, Mother," he added.

"Enjoy the view." The robotic voice sounded overhead again, and this time Abi didn't flinch at the sudden noise. The voice seemed to follow them everywhere, in every room and in every hallway. Abi wondered if there was actually cameras watching the rooms or if it was entirely automated by commands.

 _Add it to the list of questions,_ Abi thought and set her drink down on the counter. The wall just a few feet across the counter began to raise up and Abi watched with wide eyes as the 'view' from the viewing deck appeared before them.

It wasn't until the entire wall had retreated up into the ceiling that Abi was able to blink and take it in.

"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" Oram asked, chuckling when Abi couldn't quite find the words to respond. "I think this is the best place to introduce people to the ship. They won't see this, though, we won't wake them up until we get to the new planet."

Before them was a picturesque view of outer space, more beautiful than any photos she had seen, and when Oram commanded the lights in the room to dim the glare across the window disappeared and the stars that twinkled back at her from the darkness became even clearer. Abi was at a loss for words, looking around the edges of the window for any sign that it was another screen.

"It's real," Oram said after a moment and Abi leaned back into her chair, drinking the last of her protein-drink and setting the empty glass on the counter.

It was a window...which was what Abi had been looking for since she had woken up, after all.

 _Not exactly one I can use to crawl out of here, though,_ Abi thought, unsure whether the feeling in her stomach was dread or awe.

"You went into hypersleep before the rest of the colonists, right?"

"Yeah."

He let out a low whistle and pushed his chair back, walking around to the place at the table where Walter had grabbed the bottle for her earlier and returned to the counter with some alcohol and two glasses. Abi was busy looking out the window as he poured her a drink and slid it down the counter to her, only the movement of the glass drawing her attention away from the view.

"You might need a drink if you're just now waking up. It must be a bit of a shock." He capped the bottle and set it down before grabbing his own glass.

Abi looked at the glass of alcohol and thought about declining, but decided after giving it a close look that a drink might actually help after the day-or night- she had been having. There was no sun near them to indicate what time of day it was...was there even days in space? She had never given time in space much thought before.

She grabbed the glass and took a small sip, the liquid burning her mouth but warming her stomach more than the weirdly thick drinks had earlier so she took a second.

"I've always been a fan of whiskey," Oram said fondly to his glass, taking another gulp and tipping it to swirl the caramel colored drink around. They sat in silence for a moment while Abi looked at the stars through the window before Oram spoke again.

"So, from what I can gather from the information Mother has, you went into hypersleep in 2017 and now you're here." Oram opened his arms as if to gesture to the entire ship. "Welcome."

"Now I'm here," Abi agreed, finding she couldn't return the goofy smile on the captains face. But she clinked her glass against his when he offered it and took another sip.

"You're not happy to be here?" he asked, his thick eyebrows drawing together.

"I didn't know I was going to be here," Abi said after a moment. Whatever she was feeling, happy wasn't a word to describe it.

"That's unusual." Abi shifted in her chair and pulled her legs up to her chest and rested the glass on her knee. She was sure the captain was watching her but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the space in front of her. "There was an extensive study done on everyone joining us for this mission. Our files say you are here in place of your father, a scientist who first perfected the use of hypersleep pods before this mission was even an idea. A scientist like that would have had a place here but instead-"

"Instead you get me," Abi finished for him, a humorless smile on her face when she turned to look at Oram.

"Well, however you got onto this ship, whoever put you here was doing you a huge favor." He finished the rest of his drink in one gulp and poured more into his glass. "Earth isn't a place where humans thrive anymore, and it doesn't have much time before it isn't able to sustain life. For humans, anyway, maybe cockroaches will survive," he added with a dry chuckle and sat back into his chair.

"What about everyone back on Earth? What will happen to them?" Abi asked. Her eyes searched out the stars again. Was Earth out by one of those bright stars?

"They will survive there until they can't. They may have hundreds of years left."

"May have?"

Oram sighed and suddenly he looked much older than her own father, the lines around his face becoming deeper and more prominent as he frowned. "Maybe more, maybe less. The Earth is much more unpredictable and dangerous than it was when you lived there." His frown disappeared and instead he looked like he was trying to remember something. "Let's see...2017. You know of climate change?"

Abi nodded, wiping her chin on the fabric over her knees when some of the whiskey dripped passed her lips and cleared her throat. "Ice caps are-were melting," she corrected herself solemnly. "We were getting more and more earthquakes and hurricanes. Last winter was so much colder than it was before." Abi said the last bit more to herself as she remembered helping her neighbors dig their cars out of the snow.

"Things just got worse after that. That was before I was born, but I learned about it. The Earth was not treated kindly and it isn't a thing that can just heal itself when it's hurt. So when we realized we were irreversibly _screwed-_ " Oram paused and grabbed Abi's glass to refill it. "-we started looking for other places. Origae-6 is where we are headed right now. It has an atmosphere much like Earth, minus the horrible things humans have done to it. Water, plants...you're going to be one of the first humans to step foot there."

"What if humans destroy it too?" Abi asked after thinking over this new planet.

"We'll have to make sure that won't happen," Oram said, but his voice sounded far from confident. "I have faith that we've all learned our lesson."

Abi smiled at that and pulled her knees closer to her chest, sitting in silence and thinking everything over while they drank their whiskey. When her second glass was empty Abi had to admit it helped her calm down, though being calmer didn't exactly make her feel better about the situation.

"What year is it?" Abi asked, breaking the silence and resting her chin on her knees. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to know, but the question would keep gnawing at her until she found out.

"2104 on Earth," Oram answered and Abi closed her eyes.

"I've been asleep for 87 years," she said slowly, more to herself than to Oram and he sat in silence as her thoughts raced.

 _87 years...I should be 105 years old. I should be dead._ The thought was sobering. She should have been dead. It should have been her father in the sleeping pod waking up to a new planet, but instead it was her. She took his place and he stayed on Earth to die on something completely unsalvagable.

The thought made her eyes start to water and she gulped, pushing the feelings down that were starting to overwhelm her.

"There was a incident earlier that damaged our ship, not too bad," Oram added quickly, "it's what made you wake up. Some of the crew are getting prepared to go outside and make the repairs now but it may take some time. I don't suppose you want to go back into hypersleep at the moment." Oram grinned when Abi visibly cringed at the thought of climbing back into the sleeping pod again.

"I'd rather not right now."

Oram chuckled and nodded. "There is space available for you to stay. You'd have your own room. There is a dining hall and a shower room, as well as a gym and several things that you would have access to as well. We can give you a more formal tour later on, though. If you'd like to see your room I can have Walter show you."

When Abi nodded, Oram grabbed their two glasses and the bottle of whiskey, standing and setting them on the table. "Thank you."

"It's no trouble. Mother, please send Walter in." There is a small beep within seconds and Oram ordered "enter". There were footsteps down the hallway and Walter appeared holding a large box.

"I have the belongings from Abigail's sleeping pod." Abi eyed the box in his arms. It was dark cardboard secured with ductape and very different than everything else she had seen on the ship. It was surprising to see something that looked like it had come out of her own basement.

"Please show Abi to a room and make sure she knows how they work. When she's ready later and you have time, please give her a tour." Walter nodded at the captain's words. "It was nice to meet you, Abi. I'll see you after we all get some rest."

Abi thanked him again and Oram turned around to sit at the counter and look out at the view again.

"This way," Walter said and nodded his head down towards the hall.

Abi followed, catching glimpses of the familiar-looking box every time Walter turned a corner. She was tired - mentally more so than physically - and the two drinks of whiskey had spread warmth out to the tips of her fingers and toes.

"Did you finish your drink?" Walter asked, turning his head to talk to Abi over his shoulder.

"Yeah, it was nice, thanks."

"You're welcome. Any time you wake up from hypersleep you'll need at least one while you recover. I am usually the one to wake you up, and when I do next time I'll have one for you. Plain, not strawberry." Abi nodded with a small smile and then realized he couldn't see her while she was behind him so she hummed a response.

"Here we are," Walter said as he stopped abruptly in the hallway.

There was nothing particularly noticeable about the door and Abi looked around the walls, trying to find something to remember the room by. Walter was either able to read her mind or was very good at reading expressions.

"The number of this room is H-76 if you ever get lost. You can always ask Mother for directions to your room or ask Mother for me, and I can come find you." He set the box down on the ground beside the door and motioned for Abi to come closer. "Hold your hand up here." Walter motioned to the wall beside the door and Abi did as he said, pressing her hand against the wall and nearly jumping back when she heard a soft ding and the space around her fingers glowed green.

Walter picked up the box and lead the way into her room.


End file.
